A magnitude 6.9 earthquake hit Japan on September 4 and shook buildings in Tokyo.
People reported feeling the quake on Twitter.
“Wow.... if you didn’t feel that earthquake, you must be dead,” said J. L. Gatewood in Yokohama via Twitter. “Something tells me that wasn’t centered anywhere near Tokyo.”
“I nearly puked after the 6.9sr earthquake, and now I can hear sirens,” said Elghandiva T., also on Twitter. “Good morning too, Earth.”
NHK reported that it was a 6.9 magnitude while the U.S. Geological Survey reported it was 6.5 magnitude.
The quake’s epicenter centered offshore near Torishima, part of the Izu Islands, almost 400 miles south of Tokyo, and at a depth of 251 miles. It was 319 miles south of Oyama, 307 miles south/southeast of Shingu, and 221 miles south/southwest of Hachijo-jima.
Despite the remoteness of the epicenter, tremors were felt from the north of the main island of Honshu to the west. In Tokyo, buildings swayed for several moments.
The national broadcaster NHK said some train lines stopped briefly for safety checks as a precaution. No tsunami alert was issued.
The quake happened in the vincinity of the Philippine Sea tectonic plate, which is bordered by three other plates--the Pacific and Eurasia plates, and the smaller Sunda plate, according to the survey.
“The Philippine Sea plate is unusual in that its borders are nearly all zones of plate convergence,” it says. “The Pacific plate is subducted into the mantle, south of Japan, beneath the Izu-Bonin and Mariana island arcs, which extend more than 3,000 km along the eastern margin of the Philippine Sea plate. This subduction zone is characterized by rapid plate convergence and high-level seismicity extending to depths of over 600 km (372 miles).”
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The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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